Thich Nhat Hanh’s talk at Orpheum Theatre is titled “Open Mind, Open Heart: Touching the Wonders of Now”. This talk is a unique opportunity for people of all faiths and backgrounds to hear Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offer his insight into how to achieve true peace within ourselves and our society.

Thich Nhat Hanh in Vancouver

Through the practice of mindfulness we can drop the preoccupations that keep us trapped in habitual ways of thinking and reacting, and experience the wonders that are available in the present moment. From this space of openness, we have the lucidity and energy to respond with understanding and compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh will shine his light of Buddhist wisdom on the global issues and dilemmas that we are currently facing and offer a fresh perspective of how to engage in the world with an open heart and mind.

This special Afternoon of Mindfulness also includes a guided meditation and healing chanting with the monks and nuns of Plum Village, a community of people dedicated to living harmoniously and being instruments of peace and compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a tiny 84-year-old Zen monk who was exiled from his native Vietnam for four decades, was wearing a brown monk’s robe and toque as he headed the slow parade of silent walkers. (See exclusive photos of the event.)

Earlier, the noted Vietnam War protester told an enraptured audience inside the War Memorial Gym that happiness can be found through the popular meditation technique called “mindfulness,” which he said will help people overcome their pain, anger and suicidal tendencies. […]

Speaking in a whispery voice inside the large gymnasium, the peace and environmental activist lamented how young people in Hong Kong are jumping out of tall buildings to their deaths because they “do not know how to handle their painful emotions.”

Urging people to learn the art of mindfulness, which emphasizes focusing on breathing to calm the mind and heart, Hanh said strong emotions are “like a storm,” and are usually short lasting. “You don’t have to die because of one emotion.”

Hanh, who leads monastic communities in North America and Europe, is being accompanied in Vancouver by dozens of brown-robed monks and nuns.

One of them told the audince, which was made up predominantly of Caucasians, that Hanh was the first to use the term “engaged Buddhism.”

This form of Buddhism counters the Eastern religion’s historical tendency toward quietism, which has often resulted in Buddhists disengaging from society to seek individual psychological liberation.

Hanh, however, has been a devoted human-rights activist ever since the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He is credited with convincing civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to publicly oppose U.S. military actions in the South Asian country.

On Tuesday, after displaying his skill at the art of calligraphy at UBC’s Asian Centre Auditorium, Hanh said he remembered first coming to Vancouver decades ago, when he tried to convince various leaders to oppose the Vietnam War.

Hanh, who makes his home in a meditation centre called Plum Village in the Bordeaux region south of Paris, also increasingly stresses environmental sustainability.

For more information, you can also visit the local community http://www.mindfulnessvancouver.org/